


Elderly Inquisitors- Where Are They?

by Nariva



Series: Random Thoughts [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Circle Mages, Dalish Elven Culture and Customs, Gen, Growing Old, Mage Rebellion, Mage Rights, Multiple Inquisitors, Nobility, Old Age, Other, Questions, Qunari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 16:16:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11317053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nariva/pseuds/Nariva
Summary: Questions I have for my fellow Dragon Age: Inquisition fans in regards to elderly inquisitors and their baffling near complete lack of representation in the fandom.





	Elderly Inquisitors- Where Are They?

     I came to the recent realization that it'd been a couple of weeks since I'd last played DA:I, so I booted it and started a new character. I picked my favorite race (you don't even need to guess- it was the Dalish Elves. Because of _course_ it was.) got to the character creation screen, and flicked through the face/age options. I decided not to go for my usual young woman face, and was leafing through the other options when I stumbled across the old face option. On a whim, I decided to go with it, and Old Ellana Lavellan, the First of her Clan, set out on her adventure.

     Boy, guys, I was not expecting the amount of change playing an older character would bring. All of my Haven conversations with Solas made me want to facepalm- Ellana was an old person and the First of her Clan, why on earth would she be asking this "young" elven apostate about things she more than likely had _years_ of experience with!? And really? "Are other Clans like mine?" Ellana- you are not some fresh faced newbie at the game called  Life- Dalish Elf Edition. This is not your first time around the block, why are you acting like it is? And that's when I realized why my Old Person play through was so utterly jarring- it felt like the game was still treating my character like a young, in-early-twenties woman, not the elderly, possibly in-her-sixties-or-up woman that she was. I haven't finished the game with Old Lavellan yet, but as far as I can tell, none of the dialogue changes to reflect the advanced age of my character, and it's really weird. Early on in the game, Solas called Old Lavellan (I will from here on out refer to her as O.L.) "da'len" and O.L. called him "hahren". Even if it's still technically correct due to the actual age difference, it instantly broke the immersion I had with the game (immersion breaking quickly became a reoccurring theme with Solas interactions). Why would my character refer to someone who she thinks is younger than her as "hahren"? Wouldn't it make more since for _her_ to call _him_ "da'len"? Interacting with the other Companions is a bit better, but it still feels like there's a massive disconnect between the age of my character and how everyone treats/interacts with her.

     Even though she was terrible for game immersion, I quickly began to enjoy playing as O.L. (even more so than young Lavellan). I felt like O.L. had years of experience with 'stuff', even if the dialogue/reactions never showed that. I liked feeling like my O.L. was more mature/knowledgeable than any of my younger characters, and I liked the Clan role possibilities that opened up. Even though my O.L. was still a seriously annoying blank slate, I felt like she had much more possible history than a young Lavellan would. With my new, strong positive feelings for elderly Inquisitors in hand, I took to AO3 to search for old Inquisitor stories. I knew it was a long shot, but I had hope that someone else had seen the wonderful possibilities an elderly character came with- I was eager to read their stories!

     I was quickly disappointed.

     The few stories that featured an old Inquisitor usually had the following traits- the Inquisitor was only old because it had been years since the Inquisition had ended, sad romances with Solas was the norm (there was only three not!Solas romances), and the Inquisitors were all females who lived (usually) in quaint little old person houses, their days of adventuring long gone.

    My first question is- why? Why are there no stories that feature an old Inquisitor _during_ the events of the Inquisition, not after? Seriously, guys, old Inquisitors have _so much_ possibility, why is that possibility not being explored? I get the pull of having a young Inquisitor, I do, but having an old one brings about such a unique change in companion and world dynamics! Why is no one taking advantage of that?

     Secondly- if you're only going to feature a young Inquisitor during the events of the Inquisition, why are you making the elderly Inquisitor's life so ridiculously boring? I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm kicking dirt on the stories that are currently out there- they're all short and cute, but that's my problem, they're _only_ short and cute. My O.L. play through is showing me that old people can fight toe to toe with their younger companions, so why are old Inquisitors all stuck living in the Quaint House of Old Person-ness? Why aren't they out there still fighting the good fight? They clearly can still fight, so why are we wasting their potential by making them all old women who only reminisce fondly over their younger days? If you want to write Old Inquisitor stories where it's an old female (likely elven) who just sits in her house/walks around town, then by all means, go do it. Like I said, some of the stories are cute. But as I also said, that's all they are. If you want to set your old Inquisitor in a post-Inquisition world, than go ahead and do so, but please remember that you could have them do _so much more_ than just doodle around their house.

     Third- why the laser focus on romance? It's a cute aspect, don't get me wrong, but in the stories I've read it's virtually the _only_ aspect. Why is this? Again, if you're going to put your Old Inquisitor in a post-Inquisition world, why on Earth would romance be the biggest defining feature of your story? Instead of having the Elven Inquisitor sit in her House of Old Person-ness and sigh over Solas, why not have her be the Keeper of her Clan (or what's left of them, if you decide to feature a universe where the Clan nearly got completely wiped out) and follow her successes/struggles? Would the Qunari Inquisitor be starting/leading his/her own mercenary group? Would they be trying to improve Qunari-NotQunari relations, or would they take after their parents and help smuggle others out from under the Qun? Depending on your choices, how would an old human mage deal with being back in the Circle (or would he/she be helping the new mage leader handle the independence of mages?)? How would the non-mage humans handle being the (possible) head of their household? What would a Dwarven Inquisitor be doing? (I have yet to play a dwarf.) With the immense possibility an Old Inquisitor's life has, why are we focusing solely on the romance aspect, and ignoring all of the other aspects that could make for a truly interesting, engaging story?

     Finally- why are the old Inquisitors I found _all_ women? Even if we're going to take the boring route and focus purely on a short romance fic, why are there no old man Inquisitors? When I first looked at all the stories the 'Old Age' tag got me, the second thing I noticed (first- So. Much. Romance.) was the complete and utter lack of guy Inquisitors. Why is this? Even if you are going to focus on pure sad romance, the male Inquisitors had good romance options, so why are they being completely ignored? I'd be intrigued with a story where an Old Male Inquisitor helps old Cassandra run the Seekers, helps old Dorian deal with reform, or adventures around with the Chargers. The potential is there, so why are there no Old Male Inquisitor stories?

     I guess, at the end of the day, I'm just confused over the fact that there are so few Old Inquisitor stories. I'm also kind of disappointed that the few that are out there focus on female Inquisitors who sit in their houses and feel sad romantic feelings. Old Inquisitors come with _so much_ potential, but no one is really taking full advantage of that. Why? If a person took that potential and ran with it, the fandom could have some truly wonderful, engaging Old Inquisitor stories! The Inquisitor could have some truly great backstories (instead of the blank slate ones we get) because they'd have lived long enough to actually _do_ things, unlike their younger counterparts. Heck, you could make an entire story out of just their pre-Inquisition backstory alone, they've lived long enough that that's entirely possible. I understand the pull of writing a young character, but my decision to play as an elderly character has opened my eyes to just how great older characters can be. They have lives and experiences that younger characters can't/don't have, so why are we ignoring those opportunities? My experience playing as O.L. has changed how I view main characters and age. I honestly may never play a young Inquisitor again, because I feel like old Inquisitors have so much more life and depth to them. I've already started an Old Inquisitor story of my own, but I was hoping that this could encourage others to experience playing as an elderly Inquisitor/write more stories featuring an Old Inquisitor, while I get some answers for my questions. The possibility for wonderful stories are there, and it's a shame that no one is really taking advantage of that. So please, give Old Inquisitor a shot, you may be surprised at what you find!


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